Education Game Development Contest for Collegiate Programmers

Stealthgirl writes "Check out Hidden Agenda, a game development contest with a twist. College students are challenged to build entertaining games that 'secretly' teach middle school subjects. The contest focuses on 'stealth education' in gaming, pushing students to create primarily entertaining games that also teach topics such as forces, statistics, or the solar system. Students have complete freedom in their game designs. They can work in teams of up to 8 people, build games on and for any platform, and use existing engines. Games will be judged in May, with 5 finalist teams flying to Austin to present in front of game legends such as Richard Garriott for their final shot at the $25,000 prize. While all submitted games must fulfill teaching requirements to be considered, final judging is based on 70% entertainment and 30% educational value."

Comments

Read the fine print.

[ScorpiusFan]

Hmmm. I think if you do manage to get a college-level team to come up with an excellent "stealth-education" game or prototype, the team would do better off marketing the game themselves.

Note in exchange for $25,000 that in the fine print:

3. OWNERSHIP OF ENTRIES:
AS A CONDITION OF ENTERING THE CONTEST, AND TO THE EXTENT LEGALLY PERMISSIBLE, ALL ENTRY FORMS, GAME ENTRIES, AND THEIR RESPECTIVE CONTENT, AND ALL INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS THEREIN WILL BE OWNED EXCLUSIVELY BY THE FOUNDATION. EACH ENTRANT WILL BE REQUIRED TO ASSIGN ALL OWNERSHIP OF A GAME IDEA AND THE GAME ENTRY, AND ALL INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IN THAT GAME IDEA AND GAME ENTRY, TO THE FOUNDATION IN ORDER TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR PARTICIPATION IN THE CONTEST.

IF YOU WANT TO CONTINUE WORK ON YOUR GAME IDEA AFTER THE CONTEST, OR WANT OR HOPE TO SELL IT TO A THIRD PARTY SOMETIME IN THE FUTURE, DO NOT ENTER YOUR GAME IDEA INTO THIS CONTEST."

This means the foundation will own _all_ of the game entries, and can take any of the gaming prototypes and use them as they see fit. Sounds like they win and everyone else loses for a mere $25,000.

This could be the main reason why this contest is not open to non-college students, such as unemployed game developers. Perhaps it's easier to exploit the enthusiasm of college kids who may not have any idea how much money their fresh ideas could be worth.